AGAIN BATTERED

Wairarapa Times-Age, 12 April 1941, Page 5

AGAIN BATTERED

NAZI BATTLECRUISERS Al' BREST

SPECIAL BOMBS STRADDLE DOCKS. I SMASHING SURPRISE ATTACK ON BORKUM. It is now known that special armour-piercing bombs were used on Thursday night when two attacks were made by the R.A.F. on the Nazi battle-cruisers Scharnhorst and Gneisenau at Brest, the 8.8. C. reports. The first attack lasted for almost two hours and there is every reason to believe that both attacks were damaging. The dry dish in which one of the warships is accommodated was straddled by stricks of these special bombs. Attacks were also made in the Ruhr and Rhineland with the heaviest blow at Dusseldorff. At Borkum a British air attack took the Germans completely by surprise. The planes flew so low that they almost touched the housetops. Many buildings were completely destroyed. In an attack on a barracks, all the bombs burst right on the target and troops running from the building were machinegunned, many casualties resulting. From all these operations eight machines are missing.

An Air Ministry communique states that British fighters carried out an offensive patrol in full daylight over the English Channel and the coast of France, but no details are yet available. On enemy fighter was destroyed and one British machine is missing.